Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by Stevedore:

375ml bottle with cork and cage, from 27 Jan 2012, best by Jan 2014, poured into a Cantillon snifter and consumed with my fiancée in our hotel room in Brussels today, 5 July 2013.

Aroma: oak tannins, tart cherry, faint hints of dry Bordeaux wine, and a good bit of funk. But mostly sour cherry and oak tannins, plus a good but not overwhelming dose of funky earthiness like a geuze.

Colour: pours a deep ruby/pink body, like a good pinot noir.. Could even be black cherry Comes with a nice yet ephemeral white head, not much lacing to speak of. Looks inviting and full of flavour like wines do.

Flavour: follows the nose well, lots of sour cherry tartness, some dry flavours, not necessarily sweetness, of that cherry as well. The oak is present throughout, like a delicious wine would. It's full of the cherry plus some earthy funk... Not sweet at all, quite sour.

Mouthfeel: thin-medium bodied brew with great carbonation, aftertaste is full of cherry fruitiness, mostly sourness that sticks around a good bit. Balanced, a bit dry, not sweet.

Overall: I would say I enjoyed Cantillon's Kriek better, and definitely their Lou Pepe Kriek blows these other two regular offerings away. I'm glad to have tried this excellent Kriek, and would recommend to anyone looking to get their sour fix!

Re-review: Opened up a 2014 vintage 37,5cl bottle, dated 4/14/2014, best by 4/14/2019. Poured into a 3F stemmed glass 8/30/2014.

A- Dark purple-pink body. Beautiful. Comes with a one finger pink head with fair retention time. No lacing. [4.25]

S- Sour cherry puree, musty funk, oak, leather, cherry skins. Smells great, good complexity and the right amount of acidity for a fruit lambic that is so young. [4.25]

F- Outstanding mix of cherry puree, oak, leather, musty hay. Finish is cherry skins. As above, the expected amount of acidity for a 4 month old fruit lambic- which is to say, very tart but not as much acidity as older lambic would attain with some age. There is a large amount of cherries in this beer that is quite hard to miss. [4.5]

M- Medium bodied, a bit lower carbonated than expected compared to the normal 3F geuzes but for this style, just about what I would want. Slightly prickly, but smooth and very drinkable. Acidity and tartness are just right, balanced nicely with the cherry fruit sweetness. You can tell this is what Armand was looking for. Excellent. [4.5]

O- Fresh is probably better in my opinion, but I definitely love this with 1-2 years on it. Honestly, you can't go wrong opening bottles of this, no matter what the age is. [4.5]

Wedding Gift from Ron at SB. Many thanks. Cellared in my cellar for 13 months but dated 28 November 2006. Wife and I planned on drinking it on the first anniversary but the baby got in the way. Here we are 4 weeks later and we finally get to drink it.

Cork pops without much fanfare. Pours with a very subtle pink head that dissipates rapidly. Very little visible carbonation remains but bubbles are present on the tongue. Strikingly beautiful body. True cherry red, a hair lighter than burgundy. Translucent. Very pretty beer.

Aroma of tart cherries and must. Mellow. Really chillin.

Taste is dominated by real cherry flavor. Less creamy than other offerings from Drei Fontein but that trademark lactic quality is present. Kind of like a lighter, slightly tarter version of New Glarus Belgian Red. In many ways much closer to a Door County cherry wine than a beer.

Mouthfeel is funky but subdued. This is quite mellow by Drei Fontein standards. Acidic. Quite tart but not particularly sour.

The cork unexpectedly flew off once I got the cage untwisted, so watch out for that. Dangerous.

The liquid pours deep cherry color with a purplish-pink head that's short-lived.

There is actually quite a bit of bretty funk in the nose, a bonus for me. I pick up a little cherry, more as it warms up, but mostly band-aid.

A little dark cherry hits mid-palate along with the signature, sour, electric tongue fireworks that this style is known for. It's got some funk and oaky red wine-like taste and tannin. The finish is dry and oaky, also a little bit meaty, sort of like a jerky strip.

It has a creamier, fuller mouthfeel for the style, without being full bodied. Great beer.

Pours a pure red with a touch of haze. A little fizzy head on the pour but reduced to only a few bubbles at the edge. Lots of carbonation bubbles rise to the surface.

Smells like a lambic quite honestly. Has that dry tartness. Not much cherry though, although little hints of wood peak through. A touch of mustiness.

Mmmm...so tart, not as puckering as some others I have had though (I guess that means this is tart, but not necessarily too sour). Fairly solid sour cherry base, a little green apple. This beer is basically what I expect in a Kriek.

Slightly sweet on the tongue, but finishes as dry as can be. Prickly from the carbonation. Flavor lingers for a bit.

This is a solid Kriek, not overloaded with cherries though, but quite tart. Its hard to say a beer this tart is really drinkable, but it is what it is. Its a good dessert sipper.

I'm giving this one all 4s. Its a solid kriek, but the cherries could stand out a bit more in flavor and aroma. The rest of it quite good. I think it is easy to overrate these beers b/c they are so pungent and unique.

A 12.7oz bottle, bottling date 2/12/05 on the label. Served in a tulip glass, it was a deep red color with a little haze. The head, except for a few bubbles, was nonexistent. It had a cherry aroma with an oaken background. Tart cherry taste. The first few sips were a little too spritzy for me, but then it settled down. Decent beer, but I didn't finish this and think that I wanted another right away.

A - Pours beautiful deep ruby red with about one finger of pink head. Head fades pretty quickly and leaves very little lacing.

S - Nice big sour cherry up front, with a noticeable funk and a small amount of vinegar. Decent amount of oak coming through as well. Nice balance between the tart and funk.

T - Quite sour, with mostly sour cherry notes and only a bit of acetic acid, leading to a rather fruity, full bodied tartness, if there is such a thing. Mustiness and oak come in midway. The finish is quite dry and leaves notes of funk, oak and more tart cherry lingering on the palate. Very nice.

December 2005 bottling. Pours a mostly clear ruby body with no head and no lacing. Very still. Aroma of old oak logs, tart cherries, vinegar, and barnyard. Mouthfeel barely has carbonation. Taste is tart and acidic, vinegary. Very funky, with a geuze character. Very oaky and outdoorsy. No sweetness at all. Not like the sweet krieks I'm used to. Very interesting lambic.

Nice ruby red color, but no head at all. The smell is loaded with tart cherries and oak, it is also acidic and the horse blanket is lower than in others, but I prefer it this way. Taste is acidic right off the bat, tart cherries and oak are blended nicely with some horse blanket coming through in the finish. This one had very low carbonation and the mouthfeel was medium bodied, with the finish being somewhat dry. This one was pretty good, and I'd say taste is higher than 4, but I can't give a 4.5. I also can't say I'll be getting this again as it's just not worth the extremely high price I have to pay to get it.

The beer pours a ruby red color with a light pink head. The aroma is strong cherry with some vanilla. I get a little funk, but less than in the Schaerbeekse Kriek. The flavor is vanilla, cherries and some tartness. The beer is very dry and doesn't have much funk to it at all, possibly because it is so newly bottled. Medium mouthfeel and low to medium carbonation. Probably not quite as good as the Schaerbeekse Kriek, but if you take into account the price difference, I think this one is the better value.

This beer is a very pretty dark garnet red with a vividly pink tinted head. The foam quickly subsides leaving just a feather of bubbles on top. The beer smells soooo funky and acrid. The beer tastes equally funky with a lot of lactic acidity upfront that fades out to the mineral, musty, swampy, almost spoiled flavors. The finish is dry with a salty, tart cherry tang. The MF is very effervescent with abundant carbonation that just sparkles. This is a nice Kriek Lambic, but the overly funky (imo) flavors really mutes the brightness from the fruit. However, the vibrant acidity is nice, although my stomach might hate me in the morning for it.